There are millions of dollars of lost revenue each year because software is being illegally copied and installed on personal computers worldwide. Software license keys attempt to curb this piracy, but they are vulnerable to malicious users (e.g., hackers) who are able to unlock the software security features regularly. Additionally, independent software vendors do not have the capability to verify whether software installed on an end user computer system is genuine rather than hacked. Software upgrades that are performed online are vulnerable and can lead to the unintended consequence of malware installations that piggyback on the software installations.